After Settlement, Amazon Quickly Lowers E-Book Prices to $9.99

Michael Chabon’s new novel Telegraph Avenue was among those e-books available for $9.99 on both Amazons Kindle e-bookstore and iBook store.

That didn’t take long. Just days after a judge approved an antitrust settlement between some book publishers and the Justice Department allowing a return of discounted e-books, at least some new-releases are appearing again in e-book form for just $9.99.

Among those benefiting quickly are fans of Michael Chabon, whose new novel “Telegraph Avenue,” was available Tuesday for $9.99 both on Amazon’s Kindle e-bookstore and Apple Inc’s iBook store. That is well below the $12.99 to $14.99 range at which many new e-books were priced over the past couple of years.

That higher price range will likely still apply for a while to some e-books. Only three publishers settled with the Justice Department, and of those three, only HarperCollins has confirmed it has reached a new agreement with retailers such as Amazon.com Inc. in accord with the settlement. Mr. Chabon’s book, not surprisingly, is a HarperCollins title. Two other major publishers – Pearson PLC’s Penguin Group (USA) and Macmillan, a unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH – continue to fight the antitrust suit, as is Apple, another defendant in the suit. (HarperCollins is a unit of News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal).

It isn’t clear when the other two big publishers that have settled CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster Inc. and Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group, will reach new deals with retailers. Simon & Schuster declined to comment on the status of its discussions with Amazon. A spokeswoman for Hachette said the publisher was “engaged in productive discussion with e-book distribution agreements to conform our agreements to the terms of the settlement.”

The final judgment entered in court on Friday gave publishers 10 days to take steps to let e-book retailers out of agreements that prevented discounting.

It also isn’t clear when all other major retailers will follow Amazon’s lead. HarperCollins said it has reached agreements with retailers beyond Amazon.com Inc. but those others don’t appear to include Barnes & Noble Inc., for instance. A person close to that retailer said it was still in discussions with the three publishers that have settled but it had no agreements so far. Indeed, “Telegraph Avenue” was selling for $12.59 on Barnes & Noble’s Nook store on Tuesday. (UPDATE: Barnes & Noble cut the price late Tuesday to $9.99.)

Apple, however, appears to be intent on remaining competitive with Amazon. While “Telegraph Avenue” was initially listed at $17.99 on iBooks on Tuesday, that quickly dropped to $9.99.